Law reform needed to ensure meaning of amnesty: NA deputies

Members of the National Assembly’s Judicial Committee have agreed on the need to amend the 2007 Law on Amnesty to make it fall in line with the 2013 Constitution and other related laws, and to ensure the meaning of amnesty.

The consensus was reached during a plenary session of the committee which was held in Hanoi on April 5 to examine the draft revision to the Law on Amnesty.

At the plenary session

Over the past ten years since the adoption of the 2007 Law on Amnesty, the State had granted amnesty to nearly 86,000 prisoners.

According to the committee, amnesty was defined a special leniency by the State, through a presidential decision to release prisoners before the completion of their prison terms or commuting sentences entirely as rewards for good behavior, or repentance as well as to encourage them to repent, reform and become useful for society.

Deputies said the amnesty results over the past years showed the effectiveness of amnesty in encouraging prisoners to study, work and strive to reform. The rate of prisoners who received amnesty and re-offended was very low.

However, they said the law was issued in 2007 and has revealed shortcomings and no longer matched other related laws.

Chairwoman of the committee Le Thi Nga said one of shortcomings of the law was that criteria for prisoners to be granted amnesty was not tight enough so the number of prisoners getting amnesty was quite big, reducing the meaning of the policy and affecting the judgments made by judicial bodies.

Some deputies agreed that the draft revision should tighten criteria to grant amnesty to prisoners to ensure fairness and the meaning of the policy.

Most deputies also agreed with the change of the law to regulate the time to grant amnesty which will be made coinciding with special events of the country. At present, amnesty decisions can be issued on the occasion of special events or big holidays.